


Wait for Me - A Quintet

by songbird-musing (Team_Starkid)



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: F/M, I love him, Poetic, Short & Sweet, musings, orpheus being orpheus, wait for him goddamnit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 20:23:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19158313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Starkid/pseuds/songbird-musing
Summary: A song in five parts of Orpheus's pleas for the world to wait.~*~As a young dreamer, he feared he would never know a love greater than his song. Orpheus saw her one sun-struck morning, and he all at once realized that no, he would never know a love greater than his song, because she was his song. As she spoke, his melody soared, and as she smiled, the lyre strings he tightroped across, snapped beneath his weight.‘Wait for me,’ he pleaded to Eurydice, ‘I have so much I still need to show you.’





	Wait for Me - A Quintet

I

As a boy, he feared inspiration would always be a flighty lover – one moment there, another gone. Orpheus chased after her, spiraling through open fields in pursuit of a melody, and tunneling through the darkness to stitch his ideas into his memory.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he begged inspiration. _‘My legs are not long enough to catch up with you.’_

He grew. Inspiration had never felt closer, and after a long pursuit, he reached her hands and fell at her feet.  Inspiration crept up in the dead of night, whispering sweet nothings and leaving kisses up his throat, so fierce that he had to cry out, a song that fluttered in his heart like a frantically escaping caged bird.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he implored, _‘My fingers are not yet strong enough to play you.’_

He spent hours that trickled into days and finally years – crouched over the strings of his lyre – coaxing music until it bled from his callused hands into the room.

Inspiration had waited while he had learned.

With the song in his heart and on his fingers, inspiration no longer needed to wait.

 

II

As a young dreamer, he feared he would never know a love greater than his song. Orpheus saw her one sun-struck morning, and he all at once realized that _no_ , he would _never_ know a love greater than his song, because she _was_ his song. As she spoke, his melody soared, and as she smiled, the lyre strings he tightroped across, snapped beneath his weight.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he pleaded to Eurydice, _‘I have so much I still need to show you.’_

They grew. Their palms intertwined – he was warm and she was soft. She looked at him, moonlight trapped in the windows of her eyes, curled against the heat he provided. The reflection in her pupils sounded like flutes, the feel of her against him sounded like a piano improvisation– lilting and gentle.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he asked, _‘I have to finish my song.’_

Seconds tumbled into long months. The fire he felt in his heart blazed, while the fire in the grates flickered. The fullness his song left him with left Eurydice with nothing but an empty stomach.  

Eurydice waited as they starved.

The song was not the only thing in his heart, but it was the only thing at his fingers, and Eurydice could wait no more.

III

As a young lover, he believed that Eurydice would be as easy to chase as inspiration. He expected to find her hidden around each corner, behind each door. He asked after her: the remnants of her name echoing out like an unfinished cadence. _Down below_ … the words dragged his melody to its depths.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he beseeched Eurydice, _‘I’m coming for you.’_

He grew cold the further he walked. Eurydice had never felt further away. _Down below…_ She never _had_ been further away. Orpheus followed the train line and veered around the back, sneaking into the empire of steel and electric lights. The memory of her burned brighter, scalded hotter, sung louder, down there.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he said, _‘Wherever you are.’_

Hours crawled off his skin, leaving him bare, his bones exposed, his muscles aching. In every face, he saw hers, until he finally saw her face and her eyes and her smile, quashed beneath sturdy denim and grime.

His heart was fuller than it had ever dared to be, and he promised with his lips, his eyes, his heart, his fingers, she would never have to wait for him again.

IV

As a young man, who felt far older than his years, he feared that his song would be the last trace of Eurydice on his lips. He sung it through the light, sung it through the dark. Sung it when it would never matter, and when it would matter most of all. He sung it to the mice under his floorboards, and he sung it to the King of the Underworld.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he sung to Eurydice, ‘ _We have so much left to do.’_

He grew stronger under the eyes of the King, grew bolder under the Queen’s gaze. His song echoed louder, not faltering as the Queen’s lips curved, not breaking as the King’s old, cold eyes burnished with a tear. All he had to do was walk the route he had walked, Eurydice behind him, without looking back. They were free.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he gasped. Could she hear him? Would she hear, no matter how loud he shouted, no matter how softly he sung? _‘Wait for me,’_ but he said it more for himself, than for her.

He did not know how long it had been. Moments had ceased to exist, he could not measure time in the verse and choruses of Eurydice’s voice. Perhaps she had not even left the King’s side. Had she wanted to? The thought of her, beside Hades, his laugh booming through the Underworld, turned his skin into ice. The air behind him felt cold. The world felt more silent than he had ever heard it.  If Eurydice _was_ there, surely his brain would be singing the melody that accompanied her wherever she went… wouldn’t it?

The silence.

Silent.

His song had never been silent.

He turned.

A scream fell from their lips, his heart lurched, his fingers reached, but it was too late. She was gone, and could wait no more.

 

V

As an old man, he feared that his song would fade into the night, never to be heard again. He carved the notes into the sides of mountaintops, taught the melodies to each soul he met, tucked her name into the earth. He sung it until there was no one left to hear, no one left to remember. He walked a road paved with the consonants and vowels of _her,_ and there was not much point to walk further.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he cried, _‘I’m not far now.’_

He stepped into the air, rocks crumbling down from the cliffs, but he could not fall. He watched the debris fall down, way down, not swept up by the clouds as he was.

 _‘We won’t let you fall,’_ the clouds said, _‘We want to hear your song again.’_

He floated in the ocean, salt water flooding his mouth and eyes. He longed for the depths, down, down, way down… closer to her. The waves pulled him up and left him ashore.

 _‘We won’t let you sink,’_ the waves said, _‘Your song is too beautiful to be drowned.’_

He stepped onto the railroad tracks, waiting to hear the train’s familiar melody. He knew he would be pulled back before it ever arrived.

 _‘I won’t let you die,’_ the lady said, a very old, sad look in her eyes, _‘I have seen too much loss.’_

He took her hand and they left, speaking of old times and sharing a bottle of dandelion wine, as the first day of spring struck.

 _‘Wait for me,’_ he said softly, hoping that Eurydice would hear him, _‘Until I can see you again.’_

Year rolled after year, long at first, and then shorter. He greeted spring each year, and when she left, when he was almost ancient, leaving rainstorms and frosts in her place, Orpheus had a feeling that it would not be long before he saw her again.

Eventually his old heart slowed, Eurydice’s name was on his lips, and finally she was at his fingers once more. All at once, there was nothing left to wait for.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry this is so sad!!!! I wrote this in a snap, hyped up by the tonys!!! I'm in love with hadestown and I'm so happy it's currently winning all of the tonys! (7 right now as I write this!)  
> Anyway! Let me know what you think! Hope you enjoyed!


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